206 PISCES. 



A. lupus, Lin., (The Sea Wolf,) is the most common species; it inhabits 

 northern seas, and is frequently seen on the coast of Europe; six or seven feet 

 long ; brown, with clouded bands of deep brown ; the flesh resembling that of 

 an eeL This fish is valuable to the Icelanders, who salt and dry the flesh for 

 food, employ the skin as shagreen, and the gall as soap. The 



GOBI us, Linnceus, 



Commonly called Gobies, or Sea Gudgeons, are instantly recognised by the 

 union of their thoracic ventrals, either along the whole of their length, or 

 at least at their base, forming a single hollow disk more or less infundibuli- 

 form. The spines of the dorsal are flexible, the branchial apertures provided 

 with five rays only, and generally but slightly open. They are small or 

 moderate sized fishes, which live among the rocks near the shore. They 

 prefer a clayey bottom, where they excavate canals in which they pass the 

 winter. In the spring they prepare a nest in some spot abounding with fucus, 

 which they afterwards cover with roots of the Zostera ; here the male remains 

 shut up, and awaits the females, who successively arrive to deposit their eggs ; 

 he exhibits much care and courage in defending and preserving them. This 

 genus also is variously subdivided. 



CALLIONYMUS, Linnceus. 



Fishes of this genus have two strongly marked characters ; one in their 

 branchiae, which have but a single aperture, consisting of a hole on each side 

 of the nape ; and another in their ventrals, which are placed under the throat, 

 are separate, and larger than the pectorals. Their head is oblong and de- 

 pressed, their eyes approximated and directed upwards, their intermaxillaries 

 protractyle, and their preopercula elongated behind and terminating in some 

 spines. Their teeth are small and crowded, but there are none in the palate. 

 They are pretty fishes with a smooth skin, whose anterior dorsal, supported 

 by a few cetaceous rays, is sometimes very elevated. The second dorsal is 

 elongated as well as the anal. 



It is with some hesitation that 1 close this family with a genus which will 

 one day probably form the type of a separate family ; I mean the 



CHIRUS, Stett. 



Fishes with a tolerably long body, furnished with ciliated scales ; a small un- 

 armed head ; slightly cleft mouth, provided with small, unequal, conical teeth ; 

 the spines of whose dorsal are almost always very delicate, the fin itself 

 extending the whole length of the back. Their distinguishing character con- 

 sists in several series of pores, similar to the lateral line, or, as it were, in 

 several lateral lines. They frequently have an appendage on the eye-brow, as 

 is the case with certain Blennies, but their ventrals consist of five soft rays, as 

 usual. The species known are from the sea of Kamschatka. 



